Siding panels of the type noted above are used widely in residential, commercial, and other building construction, both exteriorly and interiorly. Usually, each brick face conforms generally to a rectangular solid. Exemplary dimensions for each brick face in a common orientation are a vertical width of approximately 2.25 inches, a horizontal length of approximately 7.5 inches, and a thickness of approximately 0.5 inch. The backing board may be made from high density, nail base, asphalt-impregnated fiberboard, to which each brick face is affixed by an exterior, waterproof, synthetic rubber-base adhesive. Exemplary dimensions for such a backing board are a width of approximately 16.4 inches, a length of approximately 48 inches, and a thickness of approximately 0.5 inch. Each gap between two brick faces may have a width of approximately 0.325 high and a depth of approximately 0.5 inch.
Commonly, such a siding panel is fastened to studs, block or brick walls, or other substrates by conventional siding or roofing nails having heads. Staples may be alternatively used. If such nails are used, it is common for such nails to be hand-driven via a hammer to depths assuring that the hammer does not strike the brick faces and then to be hand-set via a hammer and a nail-setting tool, until the heads of such nails are disposed against the backing board. Such hand-driving and hand-setting steps tend to be highly inefficient.
Typically, as known heretofore, pneumatically powered and combustion-powered fastener-driving tools are not suitable for driving such nails or staples into the narrow gaps, between the brick faces, against the backing board. Typically, such a tool comprises a nosepiece for guiding a fastener as the fastener is driven and a workpiece-engaging element, which is biased toward an extended position, and which disables the tool unless such element is moved to a retracted position. As known heretofore, the nosepiece and the workpiece-engaging element form an assembly that is designed to coact with flat surfaces, and that does not fit into such a gap.
There has been a need, to which this invention is addressed, for a pneumatically powered or combustion-powered fastener-driving tool that can be effectively used with siding material of the type noted above.